SMU great Craig James on NIL, transfer portal | Free4All+

Free for all plus, Mike Ducey with Sam Gannon. We're here every weeknight at seven, most of the time on Channel 27, all the time on the Fox Local app. That's Fox Local app. Got to be careful with that. Thanks for joining us here tonight. We're with you at 1030 on Fox 4. Wednesday, which is our Thursday, because we have Friday off. So Thursday is our Friday. I love the fact that we have Fridays and Saturdays off. I do too. I wouldn't want to go back to the old way. Because Sundays, you obviously want to work, especially during the NFL season. And even when we're not in the NFL season, Sundays are a nice day to work because not everyone's in here. So it's- Oh, I love that. That's kind of how we ease into the work week. I feel like we have almost an unfair head start because you're right, Sunday just got a different pace to it. You can dress a little more casually, come in, wear some short shorts or something if a guy wants to, just kind of have some fun with things. Plus, almost all the time doing what we do in sports, you're going to want to work Sunday, obviously 20 weeks during the... Football season or whatever you're going to want to, but most times of the year, there's something big going on on Sunday. Do you do anything fun before work today at all? What did I do today? Now, I had it in my mind that I was going to work out today, but I didn't. I worked out yesterday, so tomorrow. I'm trying to do three strength training sessions a week. Yeah, I have to go tomorrow. And you go to the gym where you live, right? Is there ever anybody else in that gym? Sometimes, yeah. There actually is. And it's funny, I don't like working out around other people. I just like being in there when I'm by myself. But now I'm thinking maybe I'll return to the pool and start swimming a few times as well. That's the best possible workout, really, isn't it? It really is. It lengthens your muscles out. Aerobic and strength. I got a little exercise before work today because I chased my two-year-old grandson around for about four hours. Which he's the cutest, by the way. We were outside and- There was some areas where he could get all dirty and wet. He is a boy through and through in that regard. So we had a good time doing that. We have Craig James coming up later in the show. Craig James was the main sports guy here right before I got here. For the longest time, Channel 4 had a guy named Ted Dawson. I don't know how long Ted was here, seven, eight years maybe. In the 80s and early 90s, I guess, and then Craig, who of course was a superstar at SMU, great football player there, had a nice pro career. Was working some radio, and then Channel 4, which was CBS at the time, hired Craig, I want to say in 93, and before long, the network gobbled him up. Wow. Everybody else gets the network shot except me, okay? If you- Everywhere I go now, are you related to Steve Doocy? You related to Peter Doocy? No, that's not. You know how many times I'm out and people are like- Is Mike really as cool as he seems? And I say, no, he's not. I won't ever. He's not. Anyway, Craig was scooped up by ESPN after like 10 months here at Channel 4, and actually did both. At the same time- Which is crazy to think, especially now. Which is wild. Then he went to ESPN, worked CBS for a while, and you can see why, because he's very comfortable on the air. Very charismatic. And we're talking about the Pony Express Award that he and Eric Dickerson, his His All-American teammate at SMU back in the day. And now are in charge of presenting to the best tandem in college football, regardless of position. A cool award when you think about it. It's a good idea. It is a good idea, cuz it gives other guys a time to shine that might not normally. And Craig has some thoughts on the state of the college game currently. And one of those opinions kind of surprised me about NIL. If you remember how we responded, because I jokingly said SMU was practicing NIL before it was legal because they, unfortunately, back in the day were given the death penalty for paying players under the table. But anywho, good stuff with Craig James coming up later in the show. Cowboys back at practice today. Brian Schottenheimer at his news conference was asked how he feels about the fact that the Cowboys made no significant moves ahead of the deadline. No, I think at the end of the day, it shows you that we're confident in our roster and the fact that our best football is still ahead. What else is he going to say, though, right? George Pickens was limited at practice today, but took part in some individual drills, hoping to return from the hamstring Sunday when the Cowboys host the 49ers. Joey Porter did not practice today. Dak and company getting set to go head-to-head with the team that right now has the best record in the NFC. Niners are 7-1. Cowboys, of course, just 4-5. I have Dallas. Trying to turn this season around, and if they're going to do that, they need to win a few games like these where they are underdogs coming in. Currently, San Francisco is favored by four and a half. They're a great football team. We know that. You look at them really in all three phases. This is, you know... We're embracing the challenge of playing a great team, but it's going to come down to us taking a step today and having a really good day. Putting together another good week, but anytime you win a game in this league, certainly against a great opponent like San Francisco, it'd be a huge step. Any win is going to be big right now. Thank you. If you're a competitor, if you're a player in this league, you want to win every single game. So that's the main thing we focus on, not beating ourselves and executing and trying to pull out a win. Brock Purdy, man, a true competitor, a true leader from what I see. A guy that's able to get the ball out fast, a guy that's able to hit the deep ball, get the playmakers the opportunity to make big-time plays. A guy that's able to get out of the pocket, you know, if the rush lanes are not, you know, cooperated right or, you know, coordinated right, but a guy that's able to maximize on, you know, defenses, liabilities, and certain things. Also practicing with the Cowboys for the first time today, running back Kendre Miller signed yesterday after being released by the Saints last week. He had run for 159 yards this year, nine catches for 37. He was signed because of Tyler Goodson's injury. Miller played at TCU. He grew up in Mount Enterprise, Texas, a community in East Texas, population 900. Miller talked with reporters today, excited to be playing again in his home state. Thank God, you know, I'm back in Texas and, you know, still getting, you know, opportunity to play childhood sport. And, you know, just like I said, all these dudes, it's a lot of dudes in here I know. And, you know, I played with at TCU. So, you know, it's just a blessing that I'm back here. And, you know, I'm super familiar with the area, obviously. So like it just feels right at home. Just with my, you know, a couple hours here, you know, I could tell that the point they had right now is, you know, we ready to turn it around. And like I said, discipline and details. This is the main thing since I've been here and get that around, I feel like this team is going to take a big step. It's easy to overlook that Goodson injury and its importance because he had really provided kind of a counter or an addition to Javonte Williams in the backfield, kind of a change of pace, right? Yeah. So they have to deal with that. We're going to have our official picks tomorrow and I still haven't decided. I think most people are assuming that everybody's going to pick San Francisco to win this game. I don't know why, I just have a feeling maybe the Cowboys are going to be ready to finally respond in a game against a good team, and maybe the Niners are there to be had. I may have to do a little more research, though, between today and tomorrow before I make that final decision. I just look at San Francisco's offense and how stacked it is, too, just like the Cowboys are, but the Niners' defense, I think, is pretty stout. They're third overall in the league. They give up 19.5 points per game. They're getting Debo Samuel back. Mike Evans is questionable, but they acquired Keenan Allen from the Colts, who the Cowboys just went up against. I just think this is a different tier team. And I think the 49ers are going to want to come in here and embarrass the heck out of Dallas. I really do. And maybe they'll be able to do that. We got caught up in trade deadline talk yesterday, so we didn't really get much into Jerry on the fan, but he was interesting. I think in the way he responded to that win over the Colts, it was the first time we'd heard him since the narrow win at Indianapolis. Bittersweet. We would like to have avoided in those circumstances where we had spurts of playing well. Both the offense statistics are impressive. The defense played some great snaps out there. On the other hand, we had to really have some help to get that win. And overall, we're not playing very good. And we're sure going to have to take what we've done over the last several weeks, put the best parts of it together, because we've got a real challenge coming up this weekend with San Francisco. One of the things that can be really frustrating for fans about Jerry is the fact that he just isn't real realistic, sometimes real realistic, I'm an English major, about the way he evaluates his team. He's too optimistic. But I thought his tone was really kind of fascinating there in that he said the game was disappointing. It's a win. Usually he would say any win's a good win and every win is difficult in the NFL and all that. But he used the term bittersweet to describe that victory. It's almost like maybe it sounds like he is coming to terms with the fact that this team just ain't got it. Well, because if it was, I guess you could say in theory, yes, every win in the NFL is a good win because they're so hard to come by. But really, if this team was showing the kind of week-to-week improvement, then the Colts are the kind of team that the Cowboys should have blown out. Oh, no doubt. And had they done that? Then you could come away saying, okay, they did show us something because this is a team they should have beaten up on real bad and they did that, but they didn't, they could have lost this game and they were able to close it out on the end. And so I think coming into this game against San Francisco, you're really going to have to do a 180 if you expect to go toe to toe with this team. I don't think you can have 14 penalties and probably win this game. And that still blows me away. The way they had 500 yards of total offense and- Scored, what, 27 points in the game because of all of the mistakes. All right, much more to come here on Free For All Plus. Our interview with a former SMU star and former pro football player and longtime media star as well who got, well, kind of got his start right here in this building. That would be Craig James coming up next. Craig James is an SMU icon. With Eric Dickerson, he formed the famed Pony Express, went on to a career in pro football, and then a successful broadcasting career, launched in part right here in this building on Griffin Street in downtown Dallas at Fox 4, then Channel 4, CBS. I succeeded Craig back in 1994. You stayed here for like an hour and a half before the network hired you away. He's here in part to talk about the Pony Express Award given to the best tandem in college football. We'll get into that in a moment. But first, Craig, what's it like to be back in this building? You worked here for most of 1993, as I recall, right? And I was coming in, I almost went to the parking garage. I had it on autopilot and it's amazing to come in here. I've been obviously a fan of yours and watched you all these years and just congratulations to both you guys and what you guys do. And the industry has changed, but you guys have not changed and that's the good part of it. Well, you went from here to ESPN, had a great run there and ended up going to CBS as well. So again, we at Channel 4 are proud that we had a little bit to do with getting you started. We have a little walk down memory lane for you here as well. Look at that young man. Who is that guy? Cool. I like that tie. Probably still got it. There's Dandy Killeen, the legendary producer. And there's Craig. You know, those years, that really taught me broadcasting. Being able to go on the air at 6 and 10 at night allowed me to learn how to become a broadcaster. There's Clarice with John Criswell and you. Dale Shornack. Clarice. Nice, nice. Where did I get that hat? Oh, that is fantastic. Oh, my goodness. He must have had a blast, though. Oh, man, you know, it seems like a different life being able to cover the Cowboys back then when they were really winning games and meaningful games. It was a lot of fun, and Clarice was outstanding. She just, what a champion, what a beautiful person. And still going strong, as you well know. It's fantastic to have worked with her all of these years. What was it like to go from here, and we'll get into the Pony Express Award, I promise, but to go from here to the network level and have that kind of run? Because I'd forgotten that you were doing both at the same time for a while. Yes, I was living out of a suitcase. So I would come through here Monday through Thursday, and then I would take off, and I'd go do the ESPN college game day and the stuff there. And it just became a point where My family, my kids at home, I wasn't seeing them, and it was really important to me, and I had to make a decision. John Criswell helped me with that decision, and I thought I was going to have more time with my family and my kids by doing the network thing, and so that's the only reason I left. This was a great launching pad. Besides that, you mentioned the challenges with your family, but at the network level, what were some of the other things that maybe surprised you that you didn't realize were a thing while you were there? Well, journalism was important back there in the day. So we had to do our homework, there wasn't the Internet. So I would receive a packet daily overnighted from ESPN and it went coast to coast, all the articles. And then I'd have to call and follow up on and my sources and the coaches and do my work. We had a navy blue blazer that ESPN allowed us to wear, and it was like there were rules, and we were really scripted at the time. It was Chris to lead and me, and then we finally got to where they had confidence in us to just free flow and go with it. And so being able to watch it go from where we had a navy blue blazer to where they gave me a different shade of blue blazer, and by the year five, they allowed us to dress however we want to. And now I see guys on the set, they take their shirts off and they dance. That's not the game that I was part of. Chris Fowler and the great Lee Corso, and you guys knocking it out of the park back then on game day. Let's talk a little bit about the Pony Express Award, awarded to the best tandem regardless of position in college football. Tell us about it. Well, Eric and I have been blessed, and we didn't realize the blessing we had back in the day of working together, competing against each other. Almost 50 years that we've been friends, and close friends. I consider them one of my closest friends. And so we put together this award to recognize the nation's top tandem. And it's really an award. It's a we award in a me era. And so now we're sitting here, and last year the winners were two linebackers from Texas Tech who weren't even on the radar when the season started. So it's fun for us to be able to track along and see which one of these tandems show up. And we're getting that month of November where people remember what you do in November. Craig, talk to us about some of the leading tandems at this point or tandems that you're eyeing right now. Miami's guys, Darian Mensah, the quarterback, and their wide receiver Malachi Toney were running away with it. Tony got hurt, a tremendously talented wide receiver. So he's out for several weeks, and it'll be interesting to see how the voters react to that. The voters are current players in college football. We're adding legends from college football, Marcus Allen, Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, that'll vote with us this year. So it'll be interesting to see how they, if they penalize, I don't want to say penalize the guy for being hurt, but how does that shake out? There's some players that around the country that are really good that are not The household names, Arizona's got a quarterback-wide receiver tandem. We have offensive linemen from Cincinnati that are really good. So this month will be telling for sure. I think my Iowa Hawkeyes probably have a couple of offensive linemen you could consider. Every year they do. Gotta find a way to get into Iowa Hawkeyes. That's a topic for another day. We better not finish 10-2 and miss that playoff. That's all I can talk about. But you're getting under the right people. It's simple. It's simple. What do you think of going to 24 teams in that playoff starting next year? Well, I was an AP voter for many, many years, and I could always get one through four pretty quickly. And then four to ten was hard, and then after that, as much as I was just embedded in college football, it was really hard. It's so subjective now. And these voters that are putting these polls together, and it's hard for you not to think that they're having an agenda, and so when you go to 24, how are you going to figure out from number 15 to 24? It's going to be impossible. And so I just feel like I know it's all about the money and tradition has gone out the window. One of the things Eric and I are really happy about and that we didn't realize at the time We could have transferred, but we've had to sit out for a year. We had to figure it out. These kids today, they'll just transfer. They don't have to compete and go work it out for their playing time. And so college football has changed. And getting rid of the conference championship games, that's another nail in the coffin that they've taken away. And so I'm not a big fan of all of it. I know that parity is in college football today. It's true. You don't really know. Who's going to show up on any given Saturday? It's very, the powerhouses, there are not just a few of them now. There are a lot of fairly good teams, and they're trying to survive. Let's talk a little bit about your SMU Mustangs, 7-2 on the season. They host 13th ranked Wake Forest Saturday, asking Dallas to wear red and blue Friday for homecoming, right? Then they travel to number five, Notre Dame, the following week. Do you think that SMU can get into this 12-team playoff? Well, this is, again, this is the trick to this thing. The week before we go lose to Syracuse, supposed to beat Syracuse. We come back and we wallop a really good football team. And I'm like, okay, who's going to show up? I don't doubt that SMU has the ability and the coaching to beat Notre Dame or anyone that we play, including Wake Forest this weekend. But how are you gonna have the team motivated? Are they gonna motivate themselves? Are they gonna play as a team and play flawless? Everybody's got some pretty good players. So Wake Forest is a good opponent, and this will be a challenge for us. A bit of a loaded question here, but NIL and the transfer portal, I know there's a lot of layers to it. A cynic would say SMU was ahead of its time when it came to NIL, but I won't go there. What do you think of the players getting paid the way they are now, above the table, and being able to transfer so liberally? Well, I'm all for it. I think they finally are recognizing that the water that was floating the ship... Are the athletes men and women sports and I'm happy for the athletes getting paid 98% of these football guys will not play in the NFL. So why not have earning years between 18 and 22? I'm all for that. If we're gonna restrict and put a salary cap on them, then I think they need to do the same for the coaches. Let's restrict everyone if you're gonna do the restrictions out there. And the transferring world, I think we have to accept it as fans now that that is the The new way. I have to be excited that my team will be different the next year. So if I go five and seven this year, we might go nine and three the next year. So that's the newness of it all. Craig James, great to have you back here at Channel 4. Your old stomping grounds. You know what, guys? To God be the glory for giving me a chance to do that all I've done. And thank y'all for having me, man. I really enjoyed being here. Thanks so much for coming in. The Pony Express Award. We'll be keeping an eye on those candidates as the season progresses and keeping an eye on SMU as well, of course. Thanks, Craig. You got it, man. Thank you, guys. So do you have to adjust the camera manually or do they automatically move manually? I'm known for moving. So Sam comes back and she's sitting like this. Ever done TV before, Sam? I mean, I feel like this format, if we're really trying to connect with people, then there's no need to be so buttoned up all the time. What's the phrase I'm looking for? The term, unscripted? Is that kind of what we're talking about? I think that's where we're headed. So that means... I was just in the break real quick. How much time do we have? I was I'm trying to give Mike some good social media advice. I've got some bits that I'm trying to tee up for him, trying to be his producer behind the scenes. And he's not listening to my ideas. Maybe one day. Sometimes it appears I'm not listening, but I really am. And then I can do it later. And not give you credit for the idea. I can take credit for it. Sometimes that's my strategy. I don't know if you've ever heard of people doing that or not, but it happens in this business from time to time. See you at 10.30.